Following in her parents’ footsteps

It must be hard to keep up with a mom like Laurice Guillen, known for her brilliant directorial and thespic skills and a dad like Johnny Delgado, known to be an outstanding director/actor.

Imagine the pressure of living up to their name and people’s expectations. Surely, people could not help but compare celebrity children to their parents.

Our encounter with Laurice and Johnny’s daughter Ina Feleo proved otherwise. We saw in Ina a confident, secure person or conscious of her genealogy, and a beautiful child who has bloomed in her own way.

"At first, there were pressures from other people, especially those who know me as the daughter of Laurice and Johnny Delgado," Ina shared. "But slowly I was able to live with that and live my life the way I want to." It is good mom Laurice and dad Johnny are always there to remind Ina she has her own path to tread.

Ina has followed her own path, and while doing so, she bumped into figure skating and instantly fell in love with it.

Now at 16, Ina admitted she has experienced so much in life. Her experience abroad while training and competing in figure skating honed her as be mature, strong- willed and independent young woman.

A promising young actress, dancer and writer, Ina has indeed inherited the creativity of both parents. It helped that she was always reminded to "look for what you want to do, but make sure that it’s really what you want to do."

And with that in mind, Ina bumped into figure skating and fell in love with it when she was 10 . She toured the world to learn and competed with the best figure skaters.

Laurice and Johnny Delgado had to enroll Ina in the DECS Home Study Program to give her much-needed flexibility in terms of schedule. Because figure skating demands a lot of time, Ina had no choice but to enroll in the program.

With unmatched artistic interpretation, Ina won several medals both in national and international skating competitions. Her triumphs include the championship in the skating ladies senior level of the National Youth Games 2000. She considers this her greatest accomplishment having had to compete with the best figure skaters in the Philippines.

But now that she has entered another phase in her life – that of being a college student – Ina had to bid goodbye to her skates for a while.

"It’s going to be temporary," Ina shared. "I will go back once I’m well-adjusted with my schedule."

With 16 units on her load and being used to home studying, Ina admitted that right now she is having a hard time adjusting to the classroom scene.

"It’s not that I’m bobo," Ina said. "It’s just that I wasn’t used to reciting. But I’m getting the hang of it already."

Figure skating had to take the backseat for now but Ina had discovered other venues to express her creativity.

In between her studies, she uses her free time acting in GMA 7’s new soap, "Kahit Kailan and folk dancing with the Bayanihan National Folk Dance Company.

It’s one heck of a schedule she’s got but Ina knows her priorities and that’s her studies. It has become her promise not to let anything interfere with her studies. And that’s good news to her parents. "As long as I can balance my time for school and other activities, I will keep on dancing and acting," Ina said.

And as long as mom and dad are there to teach and guide her, Ina believes she will never go wrong. She’s got two masters by her side and what a proud daughter she is!